Ukraine takes back dozens of towns in 'annexed' regions; Putin is 'out of moves,' ex-CIA chief says - CNBC

Ukrainian forces have counted more gains on the battlefield, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailing more "good news from the front lines" in his nightly address Tuesday.

Now, dozens of settlements have been liberated this week across four regions that Russia "annexed" last week, Zelenskyy said.

Moscow's hold on "annexed" territories (Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk) looks increasingly tenuous, with none of the regions fully occupied by Russian forces, and as Ukraine's counteroffensives in the east and south maintain their momentum.

In the video, one of the soldiers tells residents that Ukrainian forces have pushed back the enemy, with Russian forces having "retreated to a certain distance.".

Russian leaders are highly likely to be concerned that leading Ukrainian units are now approaching the borders of Luhansk region which Russia claimed to have formally annexed last week, the British Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.

President Vladimir Putin signed the annexations into law on Wednesday, undeterred by Ukraine's vow to fight to reclaim all occupied territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed laws formally annexing four Ukrainian regions that are partially controlled by Russian forces, Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.

Both Russia's upper and lower houses of parliament (the Duma and Federation Council, or Senate) approved legislation ratifying the annexations earlier this week, leaving President Vladimir Putin to put his signature to the laws formally annexing the territories.

Russian forces have varying levels of control over the regions, with Ukrainian forces making gains in the south (around Kherson) and east, and its forces advancing in Donetsk and towards Luhansk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces look increasingly ill-equipped and outmaneuvered on the battlefield, is running out of options in the war in Ukraine, according to David Petraeus, a former CIA director and retired U.S.

When asked what Putin's next move could be in Ukraine, whose armed forces are making significant gains in counteroffensives in the south and east of the country, Petraeus told CNBC's Hadley Gamble he believes Putin is "literally out of moves.".

But at the end of the day, they cannot reverse the situation on the battlefield, which is going to see Ukraine, taking back the territory that Russia has taken since 24 February, and perhaps taking back everything that Russia has taken from them since 2014," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Aleksandr Lukashenko are in a "fake friendship" with both sides just using each other, according to Belarusian Democratic Movement leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

In February, Lukashenko hosted Russian troops and equipment, and permitted Russia to use Belarus as a staging post for its invasion of Ukraine.

"We have good news from the front lines," the president said in his nightly address Tuesday, "the Ukrainian army is making pretty fast and powerful movements in the south of our country as part of the current defense operation.".

This is in Kherson region, Kharkiv region, Luhansk region and Donetsk region together," he said, referring to the regions where sham votes on joining Russia were held in late September.

Ukraine's continuing advances into Russian-occupied territory has prompted concerns that President Vladimir Putin might resort to using nuclear weapons as his army suffers defeats on the battlefield.

Those concerns rose Tuesday on reports online that Putin had sent a convoy of vehicles, belonging to the Russian unit in charge of the country's nuclear arsenal, to Ukraine.

The British Ministry of Defense said Russia likely will have difficulty training and equipping the hundreds of thousands of troops recently mobilized to fight in Ukraine

Since the early days of the war, Russian forces on the ground in Ukraine have been beset with a slew of logistical problems on the battlefield, including reports of fuel and food shortages

Ukraine applied for a fast-track entry to the NATO military alliance last week after Russia annexed more of its territories following a set of sham referendums, but a top former military commander has said Ukraine is very unlikely to be able to join the bloc while the war is ongoing

"They're not going to bring them in because then the whole alliance is committed to go straight to Article 5 [the principle that an attack on one member of NATO is an attack on all members] and so until this issue with Russia occupying Ukrainian land is over I don't think there's going to be a fast-track" to NATO membership, he said

Breedlove said Ukraine's successes on the battlefield in recent weeks represent a "fundamental shift" in the war, but that the nuclear threat posed by Russia is greater than ever

Breedlove said Russian President Vladimir Putin was now facing an existential fight "as he starts to lose ground" and that the nuclear threat posed by Russia had grown as the war was not going Russia's way